


Let the Rock Roll

by LakeHermione



Category: Orphan Black (TV), Orphan Black: The Next Chapter
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 03:08:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21403186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LakeHermione/pseuds/LakeHermione
Summary: A drabble to process my feelings about the revelation in OB:TNC that Sarah is apparently a forklift operator. 🤔
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Let the Rock Roll

The phone on the nightstand came alive at 5:00am and cast an unwelcome amber glow about the bedroom as it softly buzzed. Sarah stirred awake, gently rolled away from Cal’s sleeping form and made it stop. How could it possibly be morning already? As reality slowly crept in, she summoned all the will power she possessed and got up. The sodding project was all the way across town and she had to leave by 5:20am or else she’d never make it to work on time. She shivered and stepped into her dusty canvas work pants, plucked a clean tee shirt from the laundry basket and pulled on the thick, oil-stained hoody bearing the name of her employer. After jamming her phone in her back pocket, she grabbed her steel-toed work boots and quietly shut the door. 

As she trudged down the stairs she could hear Griff stirring hopefully in his kennel. “Sorry, Griff” she whispered. She couldn’t let him out or he’d whine outside the bedroom door and wake Cal as soon as she left. His fur was black with a tiny white patches on his chest, paws and the tip of his tail. They thought he was a lab mix of some sort and Kira had named him Griffindor since he wasn’t a “Pureblood.” Sarah had never had a pet before and had been a bit standoffish with him at first. You’d never know it now. Even when Kira was around, Sarah had somehow become his favorite. He followed her around the house and sat with her every chance he got. He let out a low whine as she passed his kennel. Feeling guilty, Sarah tip-toed into the kitchen. 

Every night Cal filled the coffee maker with freshly ground beans and programmed it so Sarah would be greeted with a fresh pot in the morning. Cal was good like that. They’d been getting along so much better lately. After the incident in the Principal’s office, he’d gone all distant and funny. When they finally got around to fighting about it a week later, he said if she didn’t go back to counseling and get back on the meds, he’d leave again—so she did. She hated to admit it but he was probably right. Even so as she dry swallowed her pills each morning she'd think to herself “Another day in paradise, eh Beth?” 

After she filled her stainless steel canteen to the brim, she grabbed a banana and her keys and went outside. Once she’d coaxed the old truck’s engine alive, she began perusing the jumble of cassettes without cases strewn about the passenger seat beside her. “Stones maybe? Why not?” she thought as she popped “Exile on Main Street” into the cassette player. The cassettes, like the truck, had been Siobhan’s. Sarah fuckin' hated country music, but somehow when the Stones did it, it sounded alright. Later, as the light pre-dawn traffic began to pick up and Mick Jagger drawled on about feeling all “Torn and Frayed,” she chuckled and imagined her younger self seeing this shit—Sarah effing Manning--up at dawn. Yeah that fit. On her way to work at a bloody construction site? Had to be a joke. ‘Cept it wasn’t.

Alison had thrown her a party after she’d finally gotten her GED, and everyone had asked, “Well, now what?” With her record, all it had done was open the doors to a bunch of crap minimum wage customer service jobs. And as Cosima had put it, “Oh dude, that is SO not your thing.” She’d bartended for a while but dealing with drunk assholes got old. Well, that and someone was always wantin’ her to drink with them after their shift and that sort of got to be a bit of a problem. Anyway, one day she’d seen an advert in the paper for this construction company. They were so desperate for workers, they’d pay you to get certified to drive dump trucks and forklifts and loaders and shit and then hire you. Sarah, had thought “why not” and applied. Turned out it suited her. Mostly. It paid pretty well, had benefits and she got to be by herself all day listening to music and doing mindless shit. She’d had the job going on a year and a half. She was the only woman on the jobsite except for a couple of secretaries and one of the landscapers, but once the guys found out she wouldn’t put up with their shit, they left her alone. Sometimes she went out for beers with them after work. Their wives and girlfriends didn’t like it much, but she didn’t give a shit. Most of the time Cal didn’t mind either as long as she didn’t drive drunk and texted if she was gonna be late. 

After she punched in, she re-filled her canteen with lukewarm work coffee and sat down in the back row of chairs for their mandatory weekly safety meeting. She sipped the coffee and stared out the window watching the fall leaves blow about while the safety manager droned on about ear protection or some shit, then she got her assignment for the day and began delivering pallets of cinder blocks from the loading dock to the build site. The best days were when she stayed busy and they left her alone. The worst were when she screwed something up, got written up and had to keep her temper. 

Later that evening she let herself into the dark house only just then remembering that Cal had left that afternoon for the cabin for a few days to fish. She flicked on the lights, liberated Griff and then fed him. After taking him on a quick walk 'round the block, she heated up some leftover chili, grabbed a beer and settled on the couch for the night. It felt so bloody good to get off her feet and take off her steel-toed boots. Griff jumped up on the couch and settled in next to her. As she gently stroked his soft ears, a text arrived from Kira promising that she was fine. She sipped her beer and it occurred to her that she was almost happy. Lookin' back that should have been her first warning that all hell was about to break loose.


End file.
